What themes unite my portfolio?

My main theme between both my Documentary Analysis and my Research Paper is justice and bringing the truth to the eyes of the public. In my essay analyzing the documentary “The Unknown Knowns” my main theme throughout the essay was justice, and how the interviewer, Errol Morris, was asking questions in order to show Rumsfeld the truths in the works and memos that Rumsfeld sent and the injustices he helped to enact. Justice in my research paper focuses on how marine life has been forced to be muted by our conveniences, such as commercial boating and sonar systems used by the militaries across the world. Instead of working towards inventing technology to combat noise pollution and research to measure the harm we have cause to animals, we ignore it because it does not bother us. 

While my two main essays focus on the theme of justice, my two minor assignments focus on the exploration of new writing styles and how my past writing experiences have shaped my view of writing. These two essays go hand-in-hand because my past experiences shaped my writing style at the beginning of the semester, but being forced to rewrite an essay in a new style changed my perspective on writing forms and allowed me to break free from the restrictive writing style of my high school.

Why Did I Include These Pieces?

• Writing Experience Essay
• Writing Style Imitation
• Documentary Analysis
• Research Paper

I chose to include these specific writing pieces because I believe that they are by far my strongest writing pieces of this year. In addition, you can see the progression of my writing abilities and how I changed from a more formal and rigid writing style, that I learned in high school, to a more free-flowing, but still informative style that can be seen in my research paper. I really enjoyed working on these pieces, especially my research paper on how noise pollution affects marine life because in high school I was given very few options to write about my interests and explore different types of writing styles.

What did I learn from my writing this semester?

 I learned how to add personality to my works and I also learned the importance of flow in essays, so that the paragraphs do not feel separate and that they all work together to prove my thesis. Adding personality and focusing on connecting my paragraphs are two valuable points of improvement, because they add to my writing and make my essays interesting to read, instead of a boring seven-page essay spouting out facts and never connecting points together for the better of my thesis. They also strengthen my writing because it is easier for the reader to follow and understand why I am writing the essay that they are reading. 

How will my work aid in my future writing?

My research paper on the effects of noise pollution on marine life will be important to my future work because I am interested in studying the effects of pollution on different areas of the world and I will have to write about my research to show others and the world the importance of improving our lifestyles to better the well-being of our planet.